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Tiberius Claudius Narcissus (fl. 1st
century) was one of the freedmen who formed the core of the imperial
court under the Roman emperorClaudius. He is described as praepositus
ab epistulis (in charge of correspondence).

He reportedly had great influence over the emperor and amassed a
great deal of money. He is said to have conspired with Claudius's
third wife Valeria Messalina to manipulate him
into having several men executed, although this is unproven.
However, the sources admit that Narcissus, as Claudius' own former
slave, was extremely loyal for the emperor, and so entrusted with
more responsibility than the others. In 43, during the preparations
for the Roman conquest of Britain, he
headed off a mutiny by addressing the troops. Seeing a former slave in their commander's
position, they cried "Io Saturnalia!" (Saturnalia was a Roman
festival when slaves and masters switched places for the day) and
the mutiny ended. It was through his influence that the future
emperor Vespasian was
appointed legate of the Legio II
Augusta in Germania.

When Messalina married Gaius Silius in 48, it was Narcissus who
betrayed her with Claudius, and seeing the emperor hesitate, he
gave the order for her execution himself. Narcissus may have feared
that Britannicus,
Claudius's son with Messalina, would hold a grudge against him for
this role. When the time came for the emperor to select his fourth
wife, Narcissus suggested Aelia Paetina, Claudius' second wife -
whom he would have known. Anthony Barrett suggests that Narcissus'
intention was to allow Claudius reason to pick Faustus Cornelius Sulla
Felix, the husband of his and Aelia's daughter Claudia
Antonia, as his successor rather than the hostile Britannicus.
It would also have given Claudius an adult heir, for which he was
looking to shore up his position. When Claudius chose Agrippina the Younger in order to
consolidate the Julio-Claudian family, and picked her son, the
future Emperor Nero to fill the
role of temporary older heir, Narcissus allied with Britannicus'
circle in order to secure his future.

Claudius still trusted Narcissus, and had him named praetor. He was charged
with overseeing the construction of a canal to drain Fucine Lake, but
Agrippina, now Claudius's fourth wife, accused him of embezzling
funds from the project, possibly as punishment for his support of
Britannicus. According to Tacitus, Narcissus hoped to bring down
Agrippina by revealing her affair with the freedman Pallas,
which would also have destroyed her son. He supposedly told
Britannicus of his plans in front of others, and was brazen in his
intentions, promising to right all wrongs against him. It has been
suggested that this last detail is an example of Tacitus altering
facts to make Claudius a passive character in his reign. Suetonius
and Dio report that, after reconciling with Brittanicus, Claudius
-- not Narcissus -- openly planned to bring Agrippina down. In any
case, Agrippina was suspicious of Narcissus and had him sent away
to Campania, ostensibly to
take advantage of the warm baths there to relieve his gout. This was probably intended to
remove him as an obstacle of the assassination of Claudius and the
accession of Nero. Agrippina ordered Narcissus' execution within
weeks of Claudius' death in October, 54. Shortly after the
announcement Narcissus returned to Rome. Just before his
imprisonment and execution, he burned all Claudius' letters to
prevent Nero from using their contents for nefarious means.

Narcissus is a character in the Apocolocyntosis of Seneca the
Younger, written soon after his death. He greets Claudius in
Hades and runs ahead of him through the gates of the underworld. He
is scared by Cerberus, a
dog-beast so unlike the little white dog Narcissus is mentioned as
owning in life. An inscription names his wife as Claudia
Dicaeosyna.